In the past, the looped ends of bale-tie wires, which are positioned about a compressed bale of material in a press, have benerally been fastened or interlocked together by manually engaging the looped ends and forcing the ends together to interlock the same about the compressed bale of material. Because heavy gauge tie-wire must be used in these baling presses, extra length wire is required to provide extra wire slack to provide flexible ends and to permit the manual engagement of these ends together in interlocking relationship. Additionally, because extra wire slack is required, the compressed bales which are manually tied do not provide sufficient densities when released from the baling press as are the desired. Also, the heavy gauge tie wire is difficult to handle and the increased cost of manual labor and the time involved in interlocking them together has restricted their widespread application.
Attempts to overcome these increased costs in manual labor involved in interlocking together the looped ends of the bale-tie wires and to increase the bale densities have involved the application of bale-tie wire interlocking devices which have been designed and developed for adaption to fit into the bale-tie accommodating channels in the platens of the baling press. These bale-tie interlocking devices are adapted such that upon the manual insertion of the looped ends of the bale-tie wires into the interlocking devices, the looped ends are automatically interlocked together. These interlocking devices are expensive and are not adapted to fit many of the baling presses now in existence because of the various dimensions of the bale-tie accommodating channels. Accordingly, in many of the present baling presses, the only means for engaging the looped ends of the bale-tie wires together is by hand, a costly and difficult task.